I have no clue from where this surfaced now, but it’s pretty impressive. I don’t know how they managed to create these digital effects in 1991/92 that they are still holding up today! Come to think of it: Back then my i486 PC was hardly able to run a 3D graphics videogame, and the very first version of Photoshop was just out for a year (naturally without most of the many powerful tools Photoshop is capable of today), and these guys at ILM make living, breathing (and eating) dinosaurs that move around in broad daylight across a theatre screen! Incredible!

With the abundance of digital vfx nowadays, looking back at “Jurassic Park” one realizes that it was just the perfect balance between practical effects, puppetree and a mere 6 minutes of digital effects (out of a total of 15 minutes of on-screen dinosaurs) – and of course the filmmaking and storytelling talent of Spielberg and his understanding of handling all of these elements. Unfortunately the below video is only available in 360p but check it out anyways. After the break:

“It just broke everything open.” Watch this great and inspirational short film about how ILM came to creating their groundbreaking visual effects on Jurassic Park that led into a new era of filmmaking.

Visual Effects is not just about superheros, spaceships and greenscreen action scenes. As the below VFX reel for Nicolas Winding Refn’s arthouse revenge drama “Only God Forgives” demonstrates, it is first and foremost about getting the director’s vision across to tell the story. This can result in adding digital blood to the more gory scenes, but it can also mean to simply retouch a piece of the set or to remove dolly tracks. It’s mostly invisible effects that the viewer isn’t even aware of it being an effect at all. And thus, it is everything you wish for in a visual effect in the first place, isn’t it?

Dear indie and arthouse filmmakers, don’t simply put off visual effects on your next project, because you believe that your social drama or character-driven mood piece is “not that kind of movie”. Rather think about how you can utilize digital imaging and effects work to bring your vision onto the big screen and create the images that you actually have in mind.

Check out the video by VFX supervisor Martin Madsen (Warning: It gets quite gory at times):

In his wonderful blog “Matte Shot: A Tribute to Golden Era Special FX” New Zealand-based film historianPeter Cook takes an in-depth look at the art of matte paintings through HD Blu-ray still images. It’s a pretty extensive survey with a stunning selection of over 300 matte images, including some of the most famous shots in film history that once again give proof of how filmmakers from Alfred Hitchcock to Steven Spielberg, from Martin Scorsese to Mel Brooks understood how to utilize trick photography and matte paintings to tell their story. Take a look, but be warned, it will take you some time!

The Visual Effects Oscar for Gravity is not just well-deserved, there was simply no other option in that category. But watching Framestore’s pretty nifty show & tell reel below you’ll realize why it was also absolutely right to hand out the Best Director Oscar to Alfonso Cuaron. It’s just mindboggling how he knew what he’ll get in the end and how everything will eventually fit together, when you see the actual photographed footage with all its long and complex camera moves and cameras and actors being steered by industrial robotic arms. It was a visionary approach to making that movie that fully payed off in the end… and for audiences it helped restore the awe and excitement, the magic and wonder of cinema that was lacking so much from movies in recent years.

The Mill+ created the beautifully designed and animated title cards that struck us during this year’s Oscar telecast. Below is the Best Picture nominee announcement animation, but check out their blog for still images of all the title cards throughout the show.